Eastern Michigan University has been in between presidents since Susan Martin resigned last winter. And now we are in between provosts since Provost (and Interim President) Kim Schatzel stepped down to become president of Towson University. Starting Jan. 8, Rhonda Longworth is taking over as Interim Provost.
“I think it was a bit of a surprise,” Longworth said. “There's a really good group of people who work here in the provosts office. We all have pretty important roles. I'm really honored that people think I can do the job.”
Longworth has been working at Eastern in various jobs for 22 years. In her role as an interim, Longworth said she saw her role as merely to keep the course that the university is already on.
While planning no major structural changes to university policy, she said she is uncertain on whether or not she will apply to keep the job of provost permanently. EMU is currently looking nationally for a new university president. However, Longworth did say that she would like to “find more creative ways to help students pay for their education ... to support the diverse campus environment we have in really exciting and interesting ways.”
In regards to the Black Student Demands movement on campus, Longworth said “the students have articulated very clearly a set of experiences that they have that in any institution of higher learning, you have to take seriously.”
Longworth said that EMU was set up to have “difficult conversations” like this. She said she was impressed by the “activism” done by the students. She said that her goal was to find “constructive forward movement” to address their concerns.
“I think as institutional leaders you can't order everyone to change everything about the way they behave in a dialogue,” Longworth said. “But you can set expectations about what your institutional practices will be. And trying to have that kind of conversation with students is a really important thing to do.”
As for the Education Achievement Authority, Longworth said she hadn't been in formal discussions with the board yet. The administration has had conversations with the board.
Last semester, the Board of Regents postponed a vote on the future of EMU's involvement with the controversial program. This was despite opposition by the student government, a boycott of COE alumni by several school districts and faculty at the College of Education voting that they were in no confidence of the Board.
“But I also respect the authority of the board at this point, to make those decisions,” Longworth said. “It is a challenging situation. I expect the Board to continue to listen and to take in information that's being shared with them.”
